Layout A - Royoung Bookseller

56
Samuel Gedge Ltd
DISPUTE OVER COMMON RIGHTS IN MEDIEVAL NORFOLK
73. [NORFOLK.] [Exemplification and inspeximus by Henry IV, under the seal of the Duchy
of Lancaster and at the request of the men and tenants of the vill of South Creake in Norfolk,
of proceedings concerning the common rights of the vills of South Creake and West
Barsham, 1404.]
Westminster, 17 November 1405. Manuscript, ink on single sheet of vellum (51.5cm x 75.5cm) 65 lines, opening words
of first line with calligraphic ascenders, a few small stains, old folds, verso with seventeenth or eighteenth century endorsements,
in a very good state of preservation, with the seal of the Duchy of Lancaster appended on plaited white and purple
cords, extremities of seal chipped, central crack repaired in antiquity and authenticated using a small medieval mercantile
seal.
This imposing document was drawn up in November 1405 during the reign of Henry IV on the orders of
the council of the Duchy of Lancaster. It was sent to the inhabitants of the village of South Creake in North
Norfolk as a record of proceedings concerning a dispute in which John Howard, knight, and other tenants
of the king at South Creake maintained that John Gourney, lord of the manor of West Barsham, had unlawfully
grazed his sheep on a pasture named “Southlenges” which was part of the Duchy, and that men armed
with bows and arrows had been grazing John Gourney’s stock on this pasture and that sheep belonging to
tenants at South Creake had been unlawfully impounded at West Barsham.
The document traces the proceedings from a tourn held by Thomas Skelton, steward of the Duchy south of
the Trent, held at Fakenham Dam 28 July 1404 through a lengthy process overseen by the council and commissioners
of the Duchy of Lancaster to ascertain the ownership of the piece of disputed land. The primary
means by which the commissioners reached their decision against John Gourney’s claim to the pasture, given
at Thetford, 30 April 1405, was through examination of numerous documents and ancient deeds supplied
by the men of South Creake in support of their claim. This section is of particular interest on account of references
to the names of various parcels of land and boundaries (“Blakdyk”, “the novelbounde”, “stretegate”,
“Lovedayswonge”, “the Lyngsty”) in the vicinity of South Creake.
£1750